Speakers

HEARTSafe Communities is a program designed to promote survival from sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. It is a general concept focused upon strengthening the “chain of survival” as described by the American Heart Association; it recognizes and stimulates efforts by individual communities to improve their system for preventing sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) from becoming irreversible death.

In the basic HEARTSafe model, a region (generally a US state, but county-based and international programs also exist) establishes a set of minimum criteria its communities must meet in order to achieve HEARTSafe status. These should be goals that support the chain of survival, such as widespread CPR instruction, public access defibrillators, and aggressive resuscitation protocols for first responders and area hospitals. Individual communities in each region which meet the established criteria—such as cities, towns, counties, even neighborhoods or campuses—can apply to their home office and become designated as a HEARTSafe Community. Street signs proclaiming this status are usually posted at the edge of town. If a community does not meet minimum criteria, it can take steps to work toward compliance and eventually earn accreditation.

Chris McArdle works with The Salvation Army headquarters in Roseville. He was recently promoted from a location in St.Paul. His goals include developing new relationships and cultivating existing relationships of the Salvation Army.

Chris grew up in Anoka, Minnesota, and went to Anoka High School. After that, he went to Brown College for radio broadcasting. He received my Associates degree in radio broadcasting in 2007 and was hired immediately to work at KILR Radio in Estherville Iowa. He was there for about 8 years and fell into alcoholism. He has been sober a few years now and is now trying to help people who hurt. He has been married just over a year and says, "I'm very grateful today!"

Giving Voice Initiative (GVI) inspires and equips organizations around the world to build choruses that bring joy, well-being, purpose, and community understanding to people with Alzheimer’s and their care partners. The only organization of its kind, GVI is triggering a movement to build choral music communities that celebrate the potential of people living with dementia.

Mary Lenard,Co-President of Giving Voice Initiative, recently served as the Executive Director of the Minnesota Leadership Council on Aging, a consortium of nonprofit groups that advocates for older adults. Previously she was the Director of Aging Programs at the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation and Executive Director of the Alzheimer’s Association MN-ND Chapter. Mary is inspired by her father, who passed away in 2009 after a 14-year journey with Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia.

Sheryl Hill understand that it takes grit to make a pearl. Tragically, their futures were forever altered when Tyler, their vibrant, athletic, leader and role model teenage son, died a preventable death on a People to People Student Ambassador trip to Japan. He was barely sixteen.

Sheryl and Allen turned their grief into a mission, as founders of the only nonprofit working on travel and tourism consumer protections. For ten years, they advocated on the problem side of travel abroad, now they offer a solution with premier Travel HEROES Safety Certification. Everyone should know how to avoid risks, get help and home with an individualized Emergency Action Plan.

Sheryl is publicly recognized as an industry expert, speaker, award-winning author and advocate. “Depart Smart is the most important professional work I have ever done,” says Sheryl.

Sheryl passionately believes every person, especially students going abroad on programs, should possess super skills to get help and home safely.

She has been seen in USA Today, Saturday Evening Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, Newsweek, Forbes, Huffington Post and more. She pours her time and talent into Depart Smart’s four pillars of strength: Awareness, Tools and Resources, Education and Advocacy in award-winning ways.

Sheryl is proud to attract industry leaders who have helped Depart Smart earn Emmy & Telly awards for public service announcements, Guidestar Platinum Partner status for transparency, the first ever state bill to put the “count” in “accountability” – safety reports on programs escorting our kids into a foreign country for school credit.

Lois Langer Thompson is Director of Hennepin County Library, which is recognized as one of the top public library systems in the United States. She oversees 41 libraries, one law library, a collection of over 5 million items, and community-embedded library services.

A recipient of Library Journal’s Movers & Shakers leadership award, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Gustavus Adolphus College and a Master of Arts in Librarianship and Information Management from the University of Denver.

Her focus is innovative, sustainable and accessible library service to ensure residents have the opportunity and resources they need to read, graduate, engage, work and learn.

Gary Braley has been a techie and a teacher his entire working life. After a short and enjoyable stint as a math teacher, he received his MS in mathematics from Ohio State University just in time to begin working on the earliest aerospace and healthcare information systems for Honeywell. He worked as a programmer on the Apollo guidance system and as a developer and project manager for hospital information systems including the first such system installed at the National Institutes of Health. He then became an independent consultant and participated in over a hundred major projects in the US, Canada and Mexico.

Because technology was new everywhere, Gary assumed the role of educator explaining what it was all about to diverse organizations including the Air Force, NASA, and hundreds of healthcare facilities and associations. In addition to helping first time users implement technology, he spoke at hundreds of conferences across the country and abroad. Gary also published numerous articles in professional magazines and journals.

As technology has transformed into a personal experience due primarily to smartphones and other mobile devices, Gary has focused on the exciting new capabilities and also the serious consequences of misuse these developments raise. We can no longer rely on Fred the "IT guy" to make the decisions and solve the problems. A simple mistake by an employee can subject an entire organization to a growing variety of threats. In addition to lecturing on a variety of modern tech related topics, Gary publishes a newsletter and blog. Beyond technology, Gary is active on the boards of the local and Metropolitan Meals on Wheels programs and he participates regularly in career days at several high schools.

Antonio Rosell is founder and Director of Community Design Group (CDG), a consulting firm specializing in bicycle and pedestrian planning, placemaking and urban design, and community engagement. In 2015, he was recognized as "Minnesota Planner of the Year" by the Minnesota Chapter of the American Planning Association.

An Urban Planner and Civil Engineer with more than twenty years of professional experience, Antonio integrates innovation and best-practices in Active Transportation, community design, and citizen participation to facilitate community learning, consensus-building and project implementation. He has led numerous sustainable mobility planning, design and community engagement projects in Minnesota and neighboring states, and also internationally in Mexico and Peru.

Antonio serves as Principal-In-Charge in all CDG projects, and also leads trainings for engineers, planners and other design professionals on pedestrian and bicycle transportation topics. He also serves as Adjunct Professor in the Urban and Regional Planning Program of the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School, where he teaches a graduate course on sustainable transportation.

Stew Thornley is the author of more than 40 books for adults and young readers on sports history and other topics. He recently edited Minnesotans in Baseball, a collection of biographies of Minnesota natives written by members of the Halsey Hall Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research. In 2006, his book, Baseball in Minnesota: The Definitive History was published by Minnesota Historical Society Press.

Stew's first book, On to Nicollet: The Glory and Fame of the Minneapolis Millers, received a national baseball research award, sponsored by Macmillan Publishing Company and the Society for American Baseball Research, in 1988. Holy Cow! The Life and Times of Halsey Hall, was named the Best Regional Book of 1991 at the Midwest Book Achievement Awards. Both of these books were finalists for Minnesota Book Awards as was a book he co-authored with his now-wife, Brenda Himrich, Electrifying Medicine: How Electricity Sparked a Medical Revolution.

A former batboy for the Minnesota Gophers baseball team, Stew attended broadcasting at Brown Institute following high school and worked as a sportscaster for radio stations in DeSoto, Missouri and Sauk Centre, Minnesota.

Since 1993, he has worked in communications for the Minnesota Department of Health's drinking-water program. He does the public- address announcing for the St. Louis Park men's basketball team. He also covers Minnesota Twins games for mlb.com and is one of the official scorers for Major League Baseball for Twins home games.